The present invention relates to a method of identifying the type of a negative film and determining the settings for printing the negative film of the type, and an apparatus for performing the method.
In printing of photographic negatives, their type has to be identified before determining the settings for printing condition. For the purpose, there has been proposed a photographic printing condition setting method where the identification code of each frame recorded on a negative film is electrically read during the transfer of the negative film, and examined by electrical computing actions for identifying the type of the negative film from which settings for printing condition are determined.
However, if the identification codes on the negative film are misread due to dirt on the film or fogging effects, its type will be identified incorrectly.
For enhancing the identification of the type of a negative film, a modified method of identifying the negative film is provided in which the type is determined only when two or more of the identification codes of the type are recognized (as depicted in Japanese Patent Application Publication 64-3732 (1989)).
The disadvantage of the modified method is such that when two or more of different types of the identification codes are read, it will hardly be possible to determine one correct type, leaving the need of a more sophisticated film type identifying method.
It is an object of the present invention, in view of the above predicament, to provide a method of determining settings for photographic printing condition which is capable of preventing misjudgment of the type of a negative film resulting from reading of fault identification codes.